Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback
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Until recently, many teachers only got one word of feedback a year: “satisfactory.” And with no feedback, no coaching, there’s just no way to improve. Bill Gates suggests that even great teachers can get better with smart feedback -- and lays out a program from his foundation to bring it to every classroom.
A passionate techie and a shrewd businessman, Bill Gates changed the world once, while leading Microsoft to dizzying success. Now he's set to do it again with his own style of philanthropy and passion for innovation. Full bio »
Alina Bogateanu
Dan DeHass
Some teachers have stepped out on their own to develop teaching collaboration groups for support and feedback. I applaud the concept to expand coaching more into the realm of teaching. Video is a good tool as demonstrated in the presentation, but just one tool. It should go further with people helping people. Great and encouraging presentation.
christopher L. DeMartino
Who are the 3000 teachers that are involved? I wasn't asked. Anyone else?
Siddharth Singh
VAHID GHOLAMI
Fernando Lopez
Leon Cych
Nancy Terranova
I do agree however that student achievement needs to be raised - in order for students to have a greater sense of fulfillment relative to the school experience and in order to develop learners who can continue to develop our nation. I appreciate the attention that the important duty of teaching and the field of education are receiving. We would do well to examine our practice and determine how to make improvements that will be beneficial to the continued growth of our students and to the betterment of the profession.
Shrajan Vetcha
I do agree with Mr. Gates. Most of the Teachers don't receive proper feeback.
susan broy
Immediately after college, I taught Junior High School science. The first year, I was eager to have coaching to improve my teaching, but nothing was available. With one particularly difficult class, I asked if someone could observe my class and give me feedback and suggestions. I was sent a social worker (who had never taught in a classroom) to observe my classroom for one day - no suggestions. I eventually went to medical school and was struck with the contrast between medical training and teacher training. I was not put out on my own after 4 years of medical school but was carefully mentored for 5 years through internship, residency, and fellowship with progressive responsibility but continued mentoring until I was able to manage patients independently. Even after I went into practice, senior physicians were always available for discussing difficult patient cases. Not only did this improve my ability as a physician, it made my work fun as I was constantly learning.
I am now a professor of clinical medicine and love the teaching aspect of my work. There is no better way to learn than to teach someone else, so I am still learning, again making my work fun and challenging. We need to develop teachers in the same way. We should have a program for new teachers where they are carefully mentored, starting with fewer classes (not 6 classes with a total of 180 students as I did my 1st year of teaching), allow them to develop confidence with adequate supervision and feedback before they are given a full schedule. We should also develop master teacher's, responsible for curriculum development and mentoring which would encourage long-term involvement with the teaching profession rather than the burn-out so often seen after 5-10 years.
These changes would make teaching a true and respected profession.
Victoria Ripley
Another point I found interesting was the reading ability score board, it is amazing the correlation between countries with teacher feedback and countries at the top of the board however we would need to see the whole list to make a true comparison. I have had friends recently visit who are teaching in China and culturally the old school family values there and influence of older family over the younger generation means my friends have commented the commitment to their own education is noticeably higher than that of those children in the UK, perhaps this mirrors some areas of the USA?
Great concept and I think it could truly work but in the current climate it would undoubtedly be pulled apart when people realise this is a longer term goal than the quick fix everyone is addicted to.
Camila Picado
Iris Antongiorgi
Wu Tong
Albania Ramos
shirley tan
M Totman
C Wignes
The summary of this talk says enough- Bill Gates is a "shrewd businnessman." We don't need the business world in our classrooms. We need students to be passionate about learning again. Standardizing the experience for teachers and students is totally antithetical to that idea.
Wisnu Ops
We've been using a test as feedback for students. But how can we give feedback to teacher? Until now, the best feedback for teacher is by showing them how they actually handle situation in classes, and how they can do it differently. And this is the video-in-class-idea all about. I am a teacher (and also a ceo of an education institution), and I really think this idea might work.
By the way, please try to follow his argument. And if you don't agree with him, you might say something about it. But please don't attack the person. "He is a guy from business, he will never understand what teachers feel in a classroom". That's not even an argument.
Yuma Kishikawa
K No
You need to ask your students - what is your job? Let them answer.Your job is to help students learn, to tap in to how they learn & find a ways to make them understand the material being taught. Explain to students, it is not a personality thing, "if they like you or not"... I tell my students I love all of them, they are Amazing students, but that is not my job.
Ask the students - Ask the students to summarize the material you have gone over, ask them if you need to clarify, ask them of ways to help other students to learn the material, ask them how you can make the material more exciting to help them learn. I ask students all the time - I explain to students I am there to help them learn - that is my job....What can I do to help them, and what can they do to help each other.
I don't feel cameras are a good thing.
Bill Gates, scrap the cameras .... A waste of time, money and useless bizarre micromanagement.
Bill Gates, if You want to improve education - SMART boards :) I go class to class every day (24 classes a week, some classes with 37 students) I have classes back to back, I carry my supplies up and down the stairs of 2 buildings, I lost my art room :( BUT I use the SMART board - it saves me from carrying visuals (whew) I use the SMART board to teach art, Art History, art techniques, photos, videos .... I also show Ted videos :)
christopher L. DeMartino
Very well put, Ms. Black. And the key-- like you said-- would be the training. My comment was that the answer is not simply the actual hard devices of the technology. Sure, install a laptop or tablet on every student desk in a building and a Smart Board in the front of the room-- that won't be the answer; it would be like going back to the stone age and leaving piles of tires or wheels everywhere-- until we figure out how to use these things and how to fully take advantage of the benefits-- as it sounds like you certainly do (and to be honest, there are a couple of teachers in my building who do as well), we have to get at the root of the problems in trying to improve education, which is not-- to me-- simply by increasing technology or funding for technology. It was also interesting to see in the video that every student had a tablet and had their phones out on their desks as well.
Elizabeth Black
Polygonos Zhang
Emmanuel Leslie Addae 500+
Laura Kincade
A) School districts must hire administrators who know what they are doing when it comes to teacher recruitment. The district superintendent who hired me went to the local teaching programs and asked who were the most promising teachers and then went about actively courting them (this district was in a working class area and not rich and yet professionally it was the best place I cold have worked at). Sounds simple yet so many districts don't do it.
B) Schools should hire administrators who have not only spent time in the classroom but who have the confidence of their peers. Our adminstrators were so trusted by us and the students that the students would come to them to tell them if other students were about to get in trouble. Those of us that were beginning were given support and hours to watch other teachers. The administrators also trusted us enough to ask us to share in the big decision making. This also creates the climate of trust that makes the majority of teachers want to improve their teaching. You had the feeling that everyone down to the lady who did attendance was there for the kids. School leaders create this climate.
C) People have to realize that there is no magic bullet for this and that to be honest, we don't really have an educational system in the US. We have many states who fund education differently, who spend different amounts, school districts that are completely invested in the their schools doing well and others where they are not (hence places where the teaching is not great and others where it is). Use technology but put your real money on the humans.
Jeang ha Hwang
I am sure he is born to be one of great presenters.
John Everson
1) The society puts a lot of emphasis on education, and spends most of their income on education.
2) In Korea and I'm going to assume Shanghai (considering other Asian countries like Japan also do this) students go to public school from 8:40ish - 3:30ish, then go to private schools to study...sometimes not getting home until midnight. Also, in high school it's mandatory for most of the students to study after school, like study hall, and stay at school until late at night (it's guarded by a guard if students try to leave...reminds me of a jail). Also, there really aren't many sports clubs that kids can do after school, usually only soccer.
3) Their societies have a great deal of respect for these teachers (although lately I've noticed that's starting to dwindle too).
4) The teacher feed back, at least in Korea, isn't that serious. Usually it's just teachers praising other teachers, because they don't like to be confrontational.
I've taught English in Korea for the last 4.5 years, so I've been able to see exactly how the education system works here. And in my opinion it doesn't. Sure, Korea is #2 in the rankings...big deal...If you look at the toll it takes on these young kids, it's not worth it in my opinion.
Korea has the highest suicide rate especially for young adults, because there's so much pressure on doing well. All the studying they do is for an entrance exam to get into a university, given only once a year (you do poorly...you're screwed).
So, there's always pitfalls, don't think that their system is perfect!
Wang Chung
Linda Haskins
I have an Open Class coming up next week. I expected that to be a normal observation, where some people will come to watch my class, and see how I run my classes. Not so. It's basically going to be a pantomime. I select the students I wish to teach for it, use a smarter room, and have been told to do something completely different for it - ignoring the textbook. I am basically expected to perform to amuse my adult guests. Afterwards, the observers will say nice, face saving things about the class. There will be no proper feedback - there will be absolutely no feedback about my actual classes.
My students are generally miserable and sleep deprived. They don't do enough sport or social development. This system is not good for them. I have a load of students who would fail various subjects just plain out of exhaustion, if there wasn't such a culture of cheating in my school. (I guess that's their way of 'not tolerating failure').
Yes, we need feedback, but the feedback needs to be meaningful and honest.
Wang Chung
Richard Emmett
The idea of filming teachers in the classroom to “evaluate” their performance is the essence of 1984 and Big Brother horror stories.
That this effort should be funded by major corporations is TERRIFYING.
The purpose of teaching in a democracy is to empower people so they can understand the world around them and the choices available and participate in the decisions making process.
How can a teacher present a balanced view of any important issue if their teaching is subject to micro scrutiny by organizations with a major stake in the outcome?
If this suggestion came from a Communist state, the media would be ablaze with indignation.
Remember they also only want “happy and productive” citizens.
K No
Brian Jurgess
K No
Jeang ha Hwang
I used camera few years ago to feedback myself. At first it worked but as going times, I recognized that was not a good solution for it. I think the one of best solutions is to communicate with teachers. Actually, they hardly share their lesson information and teaching skills to others. So I suggest that the best feedback is deprived from teachers themselves.
Wang Chung
Jonathan Jacobs
http://youtu.be/ahyB8jhJfZU
K No
George Stiller
George Stiller
Samuel van Dam
A failing teacher will now have the option to improve by watching what others are doing. As a teacher, you very rarely have the option to watch how other teachers - especially the best teachers are doing.
You are the helpful, caring, considering and curious person who stands up for the poorly educated.
Yes it is frustrating, but there are three ways forward. Improving the system you have or moving to a system that has improved. So you can be proud of that system and help by paying taxes to improve it even more. Or last but not least: Create your own system.
Best regards,
Samuel
George Stiller
However, doing so has a negative constitutional aspect to it. Those on the far right would be quick to claim the ClassCam is an invasion of privacy by an overbearing government. So the only way for ClassCams to be utilized is to make it part of the teacher's contract that they would have to agree with in order to be employed by the school system.
edulover learner 10+
Jason Maxwell
edulover learner 10+
Samuel van Dam
So indirectly, this could certainly help your misunderstood friends.
Best regards,
Samuel